Third World Quarterly (TWQ) is delighted to offer a prize in honour of Kassahun Checole for the best and most innovative article submitted by an Early Career Researcher (ECR) in the field of African Studies. We encourage both African writers and all those writing on African topics. The first prize will be awarded in 2025.

Submissions for the prize opened on 1 January 2024 and will close on 30 June 2025. A panel of African Studies specialists from the journal’s Academic Editor Team and editorial board will review and select the winning submission for publication in TWQ during 2025. Other entries may also be selected for publication, but there will only be one prize winner! The award winner will receive a US$1000 and a year’s gratis subscription to TWQ.

Eligible authors are encouraged to submit their article to TWQ for  consideration. All submissions to the prize will be subject to the journal’s usual peer review process. Each submission should indicate that it is to be considered for the Kassahun Checole Prize, and be accompanied by a statement of eligibility as an ECR in the cover letter. Please see below for eligibility criteria.

The prize peer review and selection process will be administered by the Chair of the Prize Committee, Professor Beth Le Roux, Publishing Studies, Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Please do contact Professor Beth Le Roux ([email protected]) for more information.

Kassahun Checole Prize Eligibility Criteria

The Prize Committee has adopted the Early Career Researcher (ECR) definition used by the South African Educational Research Association, with the additional provision of an allowance of up to an extra three years’ career break.

An ECR is defined as a person who is within a five (5) year period following completion of their PhD, or who is currently pursuing doctoral or master studies, or who is in the first five (5) years of a research career. Provision of up to an extra three (3) years can be made for those who can demonstrate that they have taken a career break.

An academic and/or research career trajectory statement should accompany the submission, demonstrating ECR status according to the Prize criteria. This statement should be included in the cover letter. 

All co-authors must meet the definition of ECR given above to be considered for the prize. 

About Kassahun Checole

Checole has without doubt successfully accomplished his aim of creating emancipatory knowledge by Africans and others, and published numerous major contributions to the entire field of African Studies.

Checole continues to support and facilitate the publication of “books we write on our own” (Troy Johnson interviews Checole at Book Expo America, 2008), and promote “knowledge production [that is] committed to knowing Africa through African eyes ” (Knowledge production and publishing in Africa, Zegeye A. and Vambe M, 2006).

Kassahun Checole writes:

“It is a great honor to have a literary Prize named for you. African writers have proven to be quite prolific in their engagement, but very little attention has been paid to their endeavors. They need to take their cherished position in the world of literature.

My hope is that African scholars and writers will take advantage of this generous undertaking by Third World Quarterly. The Prize should provide a valuable incentive and a necessary outlet for their work. This gesture will, in no small measure, enhance the global reach of African Studies.”